Understanding the Relationship between Parental Bonding, Depressive Symptoms and Self-Esteem

This study is about how parental bonding during childhood that is the care and overprotection given to the child by their parents is related to Depressive Symptoms where an individual is low on mood and interest for a longer period of time causing a disturbance in the daily lives of the individuals and Self-Esteem that is a person’s evaluative perception about his/her worth and capability. The study is quantitative correlational research investigating the relationship of Parental Bonding: Mother’s bonding and Father’s Bonding amongst individuals in childhood with Depressive Symptoms and Self-Esteem in adulthood. The study was conducted with 300 unmarried participants aged 18 to 30 from India who have lived with both of their parents till the age of 18. The hypotheses made were about whether there will be any correlation of Depressive Symptoms and self-esteem. The data was collected using Parental Bonding Inventory (PBI), Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI) and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES). The results indicate a weak positive correlation between father’s bonding and self-esteem of (+0.117) significant at 0.05 level but no significant correlation of mother’s bonding with self-esteem. Whereas there was no significant correlation of father’s bonding and mother’s bonding with depressive symptoms. Therefore, the study implicates that the care and overprotection of the father given to the child slightly helps in the development of self-esteem in the child’s adulthood. This study it can help researchers to find out how parental bonding can have a huge impact on an individual’s mental well-being.